Survive the Fire
by feeisamarshmallow
Summary: Celeste Kane shoots Weevil, and that night changes everything.


**Summary:** Celeste Kane shoots Weevil, and that night changes everything. My take on filling in some canon ahead of the new series.

**A/N:** I posted this on AO3 a few days before the new revival dropped, but it still fits the new canon. Original note, "So I was watching the trailer for the new Veronica Mars, and was struck with how angry Weevil looks in the few seconds he appears in the trailer. All of a sudden, I wanted to explore how the events of the movie and books could have impacted his life in the years before the new series is set to take place. Usually I like to go with a more happy headcanon, but Rob Thomas et al. have mentioned that the new series will be more adult and darker, and so I took that as inspiration for this little drabble. That's all to say, this is pretty angsty and depressing, so proceed with caution. Warning for language."

* * *

Getting shot changes him. Which is a stupid thing to say because of course it changes him. For one, his shoulder is permanently fucked up, but he doesn't mean just that.

Yeah, he has been through some intense shit before. You don't lead a gang and not get your hands dirty. But the thing is, those years with the PCHers, he was always the one in charge. Shit went down, but he was the one to say so, he was the one calling the shots and throwing the punches.

Even in the grind after his first stint in prison, working at Hearst and bouncing back and forth on the right side of the law. Even with students accusing him of crimes he didn't commit, and his shitty one room apartment, and his rejected workman's comp claims, Eli still felt some semblance of control. He still had the chops to boost a few cars if he needed to, and damn if it didn't feel good to make a legit pay cheque while his Hearst gig lasted.

But getting shot, point-blank, by someone he was trying to help, that makes him feel totally and utterly out of control.

And then it makes him angry.

He was out. He was fucking out of the game. With a wife and a daughter he loves, and his own goddamn business. Almost a picket-fence existence. He used to marvel that he, Eli, Weevil, that sixteen year-old leader of the PCHers who was surely headed to prison or an early death, he made it.

And then Celeste Kane shoots him in the shoulder.

All he can think that night, is of Valentina. That she can't grow up without a father like he did, and if he dies now she might not even remember him, and he's pretty sure he drags himself across the pavement by sheer force of will.

He passes out thinking about his baby and praying to a god he's suddenly not sure he believes in to please let him see his daughter again. He can't remember if he called 911, or if Celeste fucking Kane did, or some other Good Samaritan passer-by. He can't even remember whether Celeste took off immediately or stuck around to witness him bleeding out on the pavement. He wishes he could, he has wracked his brain again and again.

Because when he wakes up in the hospital, disoriented and dizzy, it's not his wife's face he sees, but a cop. He's confused and his mouth is too dry to say anything. The events of the night come back to him slowly as he becomes aware of the ache in his shoulder. The cop is speaking and as his words filter through the murk in Weevil's brain, he realizes they're implicating him. That they think he had a gun. That he assaulted Celeste. He tries to protest, but a nurse is there telling the cops to back off. That they can't be here right now, and he falls back into the uncomfortable space between sleep and consciousness.

Later, he finally sees Jade. He can't help making sure she's alright, even though she keeps telling him that it's okay and to please just let her take care of him. He can't though. Jade's not from Neptune, she doesn't know rottenness of this town like he does, and look what it got him, letting his guard down. He tells her to call Cliff McCormack and Keith Mars, the only two other people he trusts will believe him. She makes a face, like she knows he's shutting her out, but he just closes his eyes and feigns like it's from the pain.

He can't sleep that night. The ward is busy with nurses, and every time he closes his eyes all he can do is replay it over and over again. Did Celeste freak out and run? Did she stand, cold and calculating, while the cops arranged his unconscious body around the stolen gun? Did they huddle up and make a plan to frame him? Did they hold off the ambulance until they were satisfied with their fake story?

A wave of hopelessness hits him and knocks his breath away, or maybe that's just because he tried shifting his position. Almost five years, of doing things the right way, of scrimping and saving and pasting a smile on his face every time an 09er made a nasty comment because they're the ones with the high-end rides that pay his bills. Five years and Celeste Kane can take that all away because she's rich enough to pay someone to make her crimes disappear.

What about insurance? What about legal fees? What about his shoulder and his broken collarbone and where did his truck end up and how the hell are they gonna explain this to Valentina?

Hector shows up at the hospital the next day, after Jade has gone home to Valentina. Tells him that the guys will always have his back. Eli's still friendly with Hector, but they've never been close. Still, Hector understands the rage that is building up inside Eli in a way that no one else has been able to. He doesn't even say anything, just tells him the boys are there, whatever he needs, and then stands in silence for a few minutes before he leaves.

Eli comes home and tries to put his life back together, but he can tell things between him and Jade are tense. He still has a limited range of motion in his right shoulder and arm, the business is failing in his absence, Valentina is having nightmares and Eli finds that more and more he's spending his free time with Hector and the other neighbourhood boys who are still around.

He can't seem to put anything into words for Jade, so he doesn't. He's still there to help her with dinner, to read Valentina her bedtime story, and clean the house, but there's a new emotional distance that he doesn't know how to breach. He tries asking Jade how she's doing with all this, with the extra shifts she's pulling at the daycare, and Valentina's restless nights, but Jade just flips the question on him. How is he doing, she asks, and he doesn't know how to tell her that there's an anger in him he can't seem to quell. That Valentina is going to grow up and someday she'll be the one wondering how everything can go so wrong.

And so he keeps going over to Hector's, and then he's pulling his bike out from his shop again, once his shoulder has healed enough to ride it. Jade asks him if he has a death wish, and tells him to think of Valentina, and he doesn't know how to tell her that she and Valentina are all he can think about, and this is the only way he can survive the fire that's burning inside him.


End file.
